Selecting flooring for your home has never been as exciting or as confusing as it is now with so many types to choose from. Below are a few of the more common and more popular flooring options.

Hardwood Flooring

A perennial favorite, hardwood floors are solid wood from either maple, pecan, beech, cherry, oak, pine, birch, walnut, hickory and a few other woods. They are expensive but can last for centuries with little maintenance and can rather easily be restored to their original luster.

Bamboo Flooring

Bamboo is quickly becoming a favorite flooring option because it is much more environmentally friendly than hardwood floors. It looks a little different than hardwood but creates the same overall impression.

Laminate Flooring

Laminates are growing in popularity too as they?re relatively inexpensive. They are basically composite material with photographs of wood laid on top of them. They are incredibly resilient and can look very much like hardwood as well.

Linoleum Flooring

Linoleum is the green version of vinyl flooring and has been around for 150 years. This type of flooring is fairly inexpensive and not as popular in high end houses. But linoleum is still used quite frequently in bathrooms and kitchens.

Marble Flooring

Marble floors have become very popular in high end houses and look beautiful and elegant, but they can be cost prohibitive and their cold nature may not appeal to some.

Carpets & Rugs

Carpeting is wildly popular because of its softness, the variety of color and textures, and sound dampening qualities. Not a great choice for rooms with a lot of moisture, carpeting tends to be a good choice for the rest of the home.

photo credit:?avidtile

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a spare bedroom in their home that is dedicated to those infrequent guests or impromptu overnights. If you don’t have the space you can create a spare bedroom in a snap by making your own spare bedroom kit and keeping it handy. Each spare bedroom kit should have the following essentials but you can always add additional items as you wish.

Air Mattress

Air mattresses have gotten more comfortable than they were in the past and they can instantly be inflated so setting one up for overnight guests takes mere minutes and doesn’t wind anybody.

Sheets and Blankets

Sure a blanket is a necessity but so are blankets. Give your guests the comfort of home with a fitted sheet, a flat sheet, pillow cases and enough blankets for the season.

Pillows

A variety of pillows is always nice although you may not want to or have the space to store too many of them. Look for back to school sales to scoop up some great deals on pillows and bedding.

Pajamas

Those impromptu guests may not have brought their pjs so provide them with something to wear. Simple elastic waist bottoms and a t-shirt works for most people.

Alarm Clock

Get a spare travel alarm for guests so they won?t be late for any appointments or for work and you don?t have to get up on their schedule.

Nightlight

A night light is a good option for guests as your home is unfamiliar to them and they may forget where they are or how to get to the bathroom without tripping over the coffee table.

Toiletries?

To make your guests feel really at home, create a little toiletry bag that features the essentials. Get trial sized versions so they can take them with them when they go and you?re not out a lot of cash.

photo credit:?jinkazamah

Some people are intimidated by their landlords and worried about getting repairs fixed but there?s no reason to shy away from asking for these things, in fact fixing a small problem early can help prevent major problems later.

Inform the Landlord?

The first step is to inform the landlord of what the problem is and ask them to repair it. The problem will determine the time frame needed for the repair. If you have a broken pipe you?ll want to call the landlord and get help immediately. If it?s a cracked window the problem can probably addressed through email or mail and it?s not an urgent repair.

Receive Commitment to Repair?

You should get an answer to your repair request letting you know when the repair will be made and giving you a heads up about people entering your unit for the repairs. If you don?t receive this you?ll have to recontact your landlord and again inform them of the necessary repair.

Resolve Yourself?

If your landlord is still not responsive you can ask if they?d be willing to let you schedule the repair and have the contractor bill them. If this is okay with them go ahead with this plan.

Withhold Rent

If you still get no response you may have to let the landlord know you?re going to withhold rent until the repair is made, this is a tricky gamble and must be done correctly or you could face eviction. Contact a local organization that helps renters to get information before you take this step.

There are two things to keep in mind when trying to have your landlord make a repair. First of all you have to be sure it?s their responsibility and not something you caused or created. And secondly, you should keep all communications regarding the issue and take notes on any phone calls.

photo credit:?Cellular Immunity

Living with someone else can be difficult at times as there are always going to be disputes that arise. In fact there are five disputes that tend to arise more often than others. By being aware of these potential conflicts you might be able to head them off at the pass.

Dishes?

There are very few people in the world who like doing dishes, especially someone else?s. It?s one of those chores that just creates some animosity so to avoid disputes work out a schedule and try to stick with it.

Property?

You?ll be sharing things and you have to accept this and not feel like you?re contributing more. But try to be as respectful of each other?s property at all times.

Paying Bills?

There?s no room for flexibility here, bills are due on time and you have to pay your full share. If there is a problem then this needs to be discussed immediately.

Friends?

Friends and romantic acquaintances can become a huge problem if someone is having visitors regularly, especially overnight visitors. This is a hard problem to resolve but if you can sit down and discuss it and work out a schedule then do so, it may help. But always remember that your home is your roommate?s home as well.

Schedules

There are people who live similar lifestyles and schedules but there are always situations that arise where one person is sleeping while another is not. Typically in a respectful situation this isn?t a problem but even taking a shower and going to work early can disturb the sleep of a roommate. These things can?t be helped but should be considered before the living arrangement is established.

The key to all roommate disputes is open communication and discussing the problems before they get out of control.

My name is Dave Dugdale and I run a couple of rental classified websites (RentVine.com and PickRent.com). Over the past 8 to 12 months rental scammers have really been hitting my sites hard with bogus listings. The scammers create bogus listings with an attractive rental price, and then trick future tenants into sending them a deposit even though they don’t own or manage the property.

Sure managing properties means a flexible schedule, a constant change of scenery and a lot of face time with tenants, contractors and interested renters, but what about your presence elsewhere?

Online property management has become a key part of the success of many professional managers? businesses. It?s becoming essential to have a web presence these days, as both the rental market and property management services move more towards online accessibility and ease.

Here are a few ways to optimize your web presence and make your responsibilities as well as those of your tenants, a little easier.

Obviously if you don?t have one, start a website.

If you already have a website, make it more interactive. Add a blog or a forum as a way to connect with tenants and prospective renters. Join a social media site like Twitter or Facebook to make yourself more accessible, or offer online services like bill pay or maintenance forms.

Also, if you haven?t already, look into investing in property management software. Not only can it reduce the stacks of paper files on your desk, but it has a host of tools and options to make organizing and updating information quick and easy.

Finally, get involved in the community?the online community! There are dozens of forums, groups and blogs just for property managers. Exchange ideas, ask questions, even give advice?you never know when you might need a resource to help you with your business, or be one for someone else.

With these simple additions to your online presence, you can make your property management business stand out to tenants and prospective renters alike. Just be sure to follow through with what you started?a Twitter account won?t do you any good if you never check it, and neither will online software if you don?t use it.

If you?re thinking about adding shutters or storm windows to your home?s exterior then you?re going to have to measure the windows properly to make sure you?re getting your shutters and storm windows in the property size.

Unfortunately older windows are frequently no longer square, and in fact, some new construction that was created during the housing boom never even started out square.

Measure the opening of your window horizontally at the top, the bottom and in the middle. Measure the window vertically in much the same way, measuring both sides and the middle.

Take another measurement diagonally from each top corner to the opposite bottom one. The measurements should be the same, but if they?re not your window is not square and is what the industry refers to as racked.

The smallest of the three measurements on both the horizontal and vertical measurements is the one you will use when reporting the measurements to the shutter and storm window manufacturer. Make sure to tell them that you?re supplying actual measurements and they will adjust for any clearances. You?ll also need to inform them if you?ve got a racked window so they can make allowances for that as well.

photo credit: *Susie*

Yards are gaining in popularity and are being treated as a part of the house so keeping your yard neat and attractive is a high priority. With these six luxury tools for the yard you can keep everything in tip top shape and be the envy of the neighborhood.

Zero Turn Mower

The best lawn mower around, a zero turn mower will whip through the job with little effort and time expenditure and the precision may eliminate your need for a trimmer.

Electric Leaf Shredder

A beautiful lawn has big beautiful trees which means you?ve got leaves, an electric leaf shredder quickly turns those leaves into mulch that you can use to boost the beauty of your planted blooms.

Multitask Cultivator

Look for a multitask cultivator that will work as an aerator, sweeper, edger and numerous other tools. It may be expensive but you?re saving money by not having to buy the other tools and you?re saving space by just having one tool do all these jobs.

Alligator Lopper

An alligator lopper is a great pruning tool that handles branches up to four inches in diameter. This quiet tool is gasoline free and stays sharp, making it perfect for keeping your shrubs and trees neat and groomed.

Hedge Trimmer

Not your hedge trimmer of the past, hedge trimmers now trim, shred, vacuum and collect the clippings for you. The blades are also shielded so you?re not going to have that cut cord mishap that you did before.

Outdoor Sweeper

I loathe the leaf blower as a rake and broom do just as good a job and give you much needed exercise while not using energy unnecessarily. But the outdoor sweeper is a people-powered push machine which give you a dual action sweeping system with rotating bushes that pick up both wet and dry debris, giving you an excellent looking patio, sidewalk, and driveway with very little effort.

photo credit: *Susie*